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Esiste qui a Mumbai il quatiere dei dhobi, i membri della casta dei lavandai.
Questi lavorano come le bestie su dune di biancherie.
Si possono avere capi puliti e stirati in poche decine di minuti.
Lo spettacolo è unico e tutto contrasta con tutto, montagne di panni bianchi stesi nel mezzo di una metropoli, montagne di persone che lavano, ed in mezzo persone che cucinano il bianco bhat, magazzini di panni dentro pochi metri di casa.
Tutto ciò in un’atmosfera di sorrisi sconcertanti, che è dopo tutto la caratteristica del popolo Indiano.
When visiting India you come across these curious washermen on the banks of the river, outside their homes or on the street.
In particular, in the great metropolis of Mumbai we find the biggest open-air laundry in the world called dobhi ghat.
The dobhi walla , the cast of washermen, live and work here. They are such competent and efficient workers that, even today, they are able to resist the more modern washing.machine.
Inside these open- air laundries the inhabitants wash and iron around 60,000 items of clothing a day, all without the use of machinery and
with incredible speed.
For a few cents they spend the day in water scrubbing and wringing mountains of linen which arrive from textile factories and fashion houses.
The long days of work are interspersed with a few breaks where they gather in a makeshift kitchen to cook themselves a meal, chat and have a rest.
This is how the laundry suburbs, known as dhobi, came into being.
It’s a truly unique sight; piles of white linen form the centre piece of this metropolis, hoards of people washing around small fires where the white bath takes place.
And the atmosphere is jovial and abounding in smiles, in keeping with the character of Indians in general.